A single-seat fighter flying boat developed for the Austro-
Hungarian Navy, the prototype of the W.17 (also
designated A 49/I) was a biplane with a cantilever
lower wing and was tested at Pola in July 1917. K.u.k.
Linienschiffsleutnant Gottfried Banfield, responsible
for the evaluation of the W.17, felt that the cantilever
lower wing was unsuited for marine use and that the
flying boat possessed inadequate manoeuvrability.
Armament of the W.17 comprised two 8mm Schwarzlose
machine guns and the initial aircraft was allegedly
lost when the upper wing broke away in flight. A second aircraft (the A 49/II) was completed as an equispan
triplane with interplane bracing struts. This is
believed to have been submitted to the Austro-Hungarian
Navy for evaluation in July 1917, but no details of
these tests, or aircraft data, appear to have survived.